Team Blitz India
JAIPUR: Two tiger cubs were born at Rajasthan’s Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), taking the number of big cats to 30. According to forest department sources, the tigress, ST-19, gave birth to two cubs and the cubs appear to be 3-4 months old. “The movement of the tigress and the cubs is being monitored,” they added.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took to twitter to share a photo of a camera trap of a tigress with the newborn cubs.
“New life in the forest. The good news of the birth of two cubs was received from Sariska Tiger Reserve. Now the number of tigers in Sariska Tiger Reserve has increased to 30,” he said and added, “The state government is committed to the conservation of tigers which are important for the environment.”
STR field director Roop Narayan Meena said, “Two tiger cubs, along with their mother ST-19, were captured in the camera trap in the STR Buffer Zone area on July 6. The cubs appear to be 2.5-3 months old. Male tiger ST-18 is the father of these cubs.”
Wildlife lovers are elated over the reported increase in the number of big cats in the Sariska reserve where tigers had once vanished. Sariska represents a tiger habitat spread over 1213.34 sq. km of Aravalli hills, the world’s oldest mountain ranges.
Sanjiv Karagwal, a member of the Sariska advisory committee, said the reserve has come a long way from being tigerless in 2005 due to poaching to the first tiger relocation from Ranthambore in 2008, to now reaching a population of 30.
